


Moonlit

by lin_the_bae_fong



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Beaujester Week, Beaujester Week 2019, Day 1: Battle Couple, Day 1: First Kiss, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 17:50:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19978090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lin_the_bae_fong/pseuds/lin_the_bae_fong
Summary: Another town, another tavern another bar fight. A sort of ritual for Beau and Jester at this point, their bar brawls never fail to stir things up. Sometimes a little too much, but in this particular instance, just enough.





	Moonlit

**Author's Note:**

> “The stars about the full moon lose their bright beauty when she, almost full, illumines all earth with silver.”-Sappho

Another town, another tavern, another bar-fight. It had almost become ritual for Beau and Jester at this point, to wait until things got a little too rowdy and have a friendly, over-the-top sparring match. It didn’t hurt that Nott and Fjord tended to start a betting pool to cushion the party’s purses. They’d laid some ground rules after that first fight in The Gentleman’s underground club, those being:

  1. No magic.
  2. No Ki harnessing ( _“It’s basically magic, Beau!”_ ).
  3. No weapons.
  4. And lastly, no hits below the belt.



Beyond all that, it was fair game. The only problem is, when someone besides Beau or Jester or even the Mighty Nein gets inevitably drawn into the thick of it, they don’t know the rules. Which leads to Beau and Jester’s current predicament.

It started with a punch from Jester, which was easily dodged by Beau. Beau felt the difference in air pressure from the strength behind the swing, and she couldn’t help grinning in pride at the gusto of her friend, her team mate, her…well. That leads to distractions and Beau’s got more important things on her mind. She weaves behind Jester, rearing her arm back for a kidney punch when she hears the powerful crunch of knuckles on nose cartilage and pauses, peaking out over the back of Jester’s head. There’s a person on the floor cradling a broken nose, skin a sort of brownish-gray and ears slightly pointed. Their golden eyes glance toward Jester as they stand, and before the two of them is the tallest half-elf, drow or otherwise, Beauregard has ever seen, easily taller than Fjord and almost as tall as Yasha. The hand falls away, now drenched with blood.

They reach for a long, curved dagger sheathed at the small of their back.

“Let us play, then.”

Jester ducks just in time to dodge as the blade whiffs over her horns and catches Beau just slightly on the cheek. Almost immediately, Beau feels a tingling sensation at the wound.

“Shit, Jess don’t let the blade touch you.” Beau says as she swings for the half-drow’s ribs. It connects with an unparalleled speed and Beau grins as she starts going for pressure points. Hit, hit, hit in quick succession and Beau pulls her fists back, waiting for their new opponent to lock up.

Except they don’t, and the blade is swinging toward Jester now.

For a moment it feels like slow motion. There is the slightest sheen of liquid slipping off the edge of the blade as it arcs through the air. Jester is quick enough to block with her arms, but not quick enough to dodge entirely, and Beauregard watches as the dagger bites deep into blue flesh. There’s a moment where Jester’s whole arm sags, and Beau breathes a sigh of relief at the thought that maybe, just maybe that’s the extent of the poison’s affects.

But then Jester is stumbling.

“Jessie?”

Jester doesn’t reply, only wavers in place for a moment before hitting the ground. Beau stares long enough to see if she’s breathing ( _thank the gods, she is_ ) before she turns to the half-drow before her. Suddenly, the rest of the Nein start to push forward.

“Stay back,” Beau says before looking back toward the drow, “You’re going to fucking regret that.”

The half-elf’s almost manic grin faulters as they raise their dagger in a defensive position. Beau’s ready, though. And she’s _pissed._

The elf is slippery, Beau will give them that, but there are few people Beau has met that have her stamina and speed and this individual is not one of them. She can see it from the sweat dripping from their brow, how they’ve started favoring their left foot, how their swings have gotten sloppy.

For a brief moment, as her fist is coming in for what will most definitely be a final blow, Beau wonders if she should kill them.

She holds back. Just a little bit. But the elf’s on the ground unconscious and the barkeep is yelling something in undercommon at the two bouncers, and now the elf is outside probably being rudely awakened with a bucket of water. Beau doesn’t care.

No what she cares about is Jester, _her_ Jester, hitting the ground after one hit from whatever was on that _fucking_ dagger. Beau hovers over her and shakily checks her pulse with shaking fingers. It’s there, albeit a little slow, but still strong. Beau sighs in relief and tries to shake Jessie awake.

“Mmmhf…Beau…? Don’ feel good.” Jester’s eyes crack open slowly but quickly close, like even the dim firelight is too much for her.

“Do you have any spells on you that can get rid of poison?” Beau tries to ask with some semblance of calm.

“Not today…”

“Ok, well,” Beau helps Jester up slowly and slings the uninjured arm over her shoulders, “Cad might. So I’ll wake him up once I’ve got you in bed.”

“Nooo, Beau don’t wake him up. I can sleep it off, promise.” Jester sounds a little more like herself, already. Beau gets the sense it wasn’t entirely a front to make her stop worrying either, which is a relief.

“…Fine. I’m still taking you to bed though.” Beau grumbles back. Jester gives a slightly delirious giggle as they head upstairs toward their room, waving the rest of the Nein off.

“Oh, Beau~ You haven’t even taken me to dinner yet.” Beau feels a vein damn near burst with how hard she tries to school her features, but she’s sure that her cheeks are maybe a little darker than they were only moments ago.

“We’ve had plenty of dinners together, Jessie.” Beau says quietly, almost like she hopes that Jester won’t hear. Of course she does, though.

“Yeah, but like, never just the two of us, you know? And,” Jester grunts a little as Beau helps her lie down on the mattress, “and-…wait what was I saying?”

Jester huffs and crosses her arms as she tries to recall what they were talking about. Beau thinks about taking advantage of her sudden forgetfulness, telling her they were talking about _literally anything else_ , but…

But she’s curious. Hopeful.

“We were talking about dinner, Jess. Just us.” Beau finds a rag and some bandages in Jester’s pack and kneels in front of her. Jester straightens up a little, a nervous smile on her face.

“Oh. Right. Um. I just think dinner with you would be nice. It doesn’t have to be like, _a date_ , or anything like that you know-” Jester winces a little as Beau starts cleaning the cut on her arm, “’cause like, I know you have like…some reservations about stuff like that…which is fine! I just…yeah.”

Beau chuckles softly as Jester’s rambling trails off. If the tiefling’s blue cheeks are looking a little more purple, Beau doesn’t feel the need to point it out and instead begins wrapping Jester’s arm with practiced ease.

“That poison must be having some fun side affects if you think a dinner with me, date or otherwise, would be nice. I’m a mess.” Beau ties the end of the bandages in a little bow, because she knows Jester will appreciate that. She looks up to meet her eyes but pauses when she sees Jester’s frown.

“You know that’s not true, Beau.” The energy of disappointment radiating from Jester gives Beau some rather conflicting emotions. On one hand, she feels valued that Jester feels that way, and also a little ashamed with herself for not agreeing. Beau doesn’t say anything, and Jester sighs and holds her hands out.

“Will you lay with me?” There’s a tone of underlying exhaustion in Jester’s voice that makes it hard to disagree. Beau nods and stands before sinking into Jester’s arms, and Jester lays down with Beau’s head on her shoulder.

Neither of them says anything for the next hour. The silence isn’t awkward or uncomfortable, just two individuals enjoying the company and warmth of each other. At some point, Beau’s hand has found itself in Jester’s hair, gently massaging her scalp with blunt fingernails.

“Beau?”

“Hm?”

“…can we have dinner sometime? Just us?”

Beau’s ministrations stopped.

“Like a date, or…?”

“…Yeah. Like a date.”

Beau sits up on her elbows to get a better look at her. Her voice is confident, and as Beau looks at the way her eyes reflect the moonlight, the silver glow outlining her features in the darkness, Beau can tell that her heart is, too.

“Yes. A date sounds incredible.” Jester gives a small gasp at Beau’s words. A fanged Cheshire grin quickly spreads across Jester’s lips.

“Really?”

“So long as this isn’t the poison talking, yeah.” Beau laughs nervously. _Oh god what if it is-_

“Oh, no that shit wore off like half an our ago.” Jester replies as she sits up, face only inches from Beau’s. She can’t help but glance down at those pouty blue lips. Beau tries to stop herself, goes back to making eye contact and hoping Jester doesn’t notice, but finds…Jester’s not looking her in the eye either. No, she’s looking a little lower. Suddenly, anything that wasn’t each other seems to fade away. Neither hears the muffled commotion of the bar below or the constant snoring of Caduceus next door, or even the gentle squeaks of the mice that have made a home in the walls of this less-than-stellar tavern. There’s just the gentle sound of both women’s breathing, and the rush of each’s heartbeats in their ears.

No words are said and yet they have a conversation with their eyes alone;

_Can I-?_

_Should we-?_

_I want to-._

_Me too-._

_Than do it._

And slowly, they’re both leaning in. Foreheads touch first with slow apprehension, but Beau is the first to cross the distance. Jester’s lips are soft, and there’s a strange mix of flavors between blood from their fight and the pastries she’d had right before. It’s a chaste kiss, and Beau likes to think it’s more for Jester’s sake than her own but she knows it’s a lie.

Intimacy like _this_ , it’s as new a thing to her as it is for Jester. As Beau pulls away and looks at the soft smile and unwavering affection gracing Jester’s face in the silver light of the moon, she knows there is no one else in this plane and beyond she would rather discover it with. 


End file.
